Well, that was wonderful. On Saturday night at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Final Fantasy and Grizzly Bear experimented with full sets of material accompanied by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The results were masterful, obvs. Final Fantasy’s material is inherently symphonic, so the orchestral interpretation was a natural step. For Yellow House, the reinterpretation was more of a leap, although really just as logical: that album’s dynamic and harmonic richness was begging for a night like this.

Last year the Times hailed Owen Pallett as the quintessential figure in the return of the one-man band, so there was a certain poetry in seeing Final Fantasy’s works expanded by the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s sweeping and nimble arrangements on Friday night. Owen sang and sat at piano all night, playing relatively little, not even a violin within reach, self-deprecating about his instrumental-castration while captivating over a nine-song set that hit the high points along his discography (from Has A Good Home to this year’s EPs). Along with Nico Muhly on celeste and the National’s Bryan Devendorf on drums, Owen invited Aaron Dessner to play electric bass on a pair of new tunes (“The End Of Time” and “Tryst With Mephistopheles”). When Dessner stood with his electric bass, Owen occasionally peeling strips of tape from his piano for percussive effect, the high-low nature of these BAM collaborations snapped into focus. Then, and also when the announcer introduced the series as a collaboration between the Philharmonic and “indie-rock ensembles,” which made all the musicians in the crowd chortle.

Grizzly Bear’s set was custom tailored for this one evening with the Philharmonic, revisiting and reinterpreting yet-again a catalog of songs that’s seen revisiting and reinterpretation a few times now, via remix CDs, EPs, and their tendency to transform material on tour. (Some only to be played again if with an orchestra, said Ed.) Nico Muhly handled arrangements for the Grizzly Bear portion, although we’re told they aren’t necessarily indicative of what he contributed to the new LP. Still, there were songs without orchestral accompaniment (“Two Weeks,” “Little Brother,” “While You Wait For The Others,” “Deep Blue Sea,” “He Hit Me,” and “Reprise” with the Dessner brothers on guitar and banjo — they areeverywhere); during that time BP conductor Michael Christie made himself busy smiling at Chris Bear’s stick work. Game recognizes game.

The list of songs Grizzly Bear had never performed live: “Central and Remote” (so good), “Plans,” “Reprise,” Horn Of Plenty’s “Campfire,” and three from Veckatimest: the subtly psychedlic, rousing and grooving victrola-era pop of “Ready, Able,” the Yellow House-redolent, sepia-toned “Dory,” and the set-closing, bittersweet and majestic torch-song “Foreground.” Together they effectively fucked with the idea that this new album will be one big sunny pop jam, adding dimension to our expectations while heightening them. People brought recording equipment of the audio/visual variety. Dig in:

Worth mentioning that the show-closing “He Hit Me” cover was intense and if video pops up we’ll surely post. Veckatimest is out 5/26 via Warp.

FINAL FANTASY SETLIST
01 “None Of You Will Ever See A Penny”
02 “Horsetail Feathers”
03 “Keep The Dog Quiet”
04 “Lewis Takes Action”
05 “Arctic Circle”
06 “He Poos Clouds”
07 “The End Of Time” (w/ Aaron Dessner of The National on bass)
08 “Tryst With Mephistopheles” (w/ Aaron Dessner of The National on bass)
09 “The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead “
(Most of the set featured The National’s Bryan Devendorf on drums and Nico Muhly on celeste)

Most Viewed

The Doors are part of a very specific category of classic-rock artists: the gateway artists. The bands that — assuming you weren’t around in the ’60s — are amongst the first names you explore when you start digging into pop music’s past. Though keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore were all… More »

Last night, U2 played the seventh night of an eight-night stand at Madison Square Garden. (Our own young classic rocker Ryan Leas reviewed one of those shows earlier in the week.) And at last night’s show, the band introduced a few special local guests. There was New York royalty Paul Simon, who came out to… More »

After reportedly showing up half an hour late, rapper Travi$ Scott got his Lollapalooza set shut down after only 5 minutes by encouraging fans to jump the security barrier and rush the stage. Festival organizers deemed the resulting chaos to be unsafe and shut the whole thing down, with security forcibly removing Scott from the… More »

Morrissey often uses his True To You website to write about cases of what he considers to be societal injustice, as he did in the recent post blasting the killer of Cecil the lion. But as Pitchfork points out, Morrissey’s latest post for the site details a much more personal violation. Morrissey writes that, a… More »

Eminem is a pretty fit dude — for a while, he was even attached to star in Antoine Fuqua’s new boxing movie Southpaw. So how does Eminem stay a pretty fit dude? By working out compulsively. And in a new article on Men’s Journal, the rapper details his compulsive exercise regimen. “In the early days,”… More »

Lollapalooza takes place this weekend in Chicago, and most of the sets from the festival will be livestreaming via Red Bull TV in case you can’t (or don’t want to) leave the comfort of your own home. Some of the acts performing this weekend include Paul McCartney (with a highlights-only set streaming), Metallica, the Weeknd,… More »

Superproducer Mark Ronson stopped by for a live in-studio session at Australian radio station Triple J today. As usual, he assembled a crack team of musicians to back him up, including Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and Kirin J. Callinan on guitar. The band performed a great psyched-out cover of Queens Of The Stone Age’s “I… More »

Drake has already released not one but two diss tracks in response to Meek Mill’s ghostwriting allegations. After Funkmaster Flex promised a Meek response track Monday night on Hot 97 and failed to deliver, people were pissed, and everyone began to wonder if this mega-beef were already over. But no — the soap opera continues! More »